Comment by weinzierl | Hacker News Reader

Comment by weinzierl | Hacker News Reader

As conscientious objector in the 90s in Germany we had to do an alternative basic training[1]. Part of the ordeal was a whole day - from bed to bed - in a wheelchair.

We were divided in groups of two, one guy played the wheelchair user, the other the caretaker. We made a day trip by rail to the lovely town of Bamberg.

Our task was to observe how people react to us and write it down in a report from the perspective of the wheelchair user and the caregiver respectively. The day after we discussed our reports in the group.

One thing I remember is, how much physical strength it requires in your arms to drive up an incline and the fear of rolling backwards, maybe even toppling backwards and hitting the ground with your head. The other that trains and stations were completely unprepared for wheelchairs in the 90s.

We did the blind experiment as well, but only for under an hour within our building. Here the caretakers were split into two groups and half of them were secretly told to let the blind guy run into a wall or over a step just once. Afterwards we had to discuss how that affected trust in the caregiver.

[1] This was not really meant to prepare us for our duties on the frontlines at hospitals and homes for the elderly, though in my case it helped a bit. The real reason was to uphold the Wehrgerechtigkeit - the idea that consciousness objectors are subject to the very same conditions as conscripts. In practice this idea fell short, because places for training were few and people randomly selected for it.

Everyone should spend an hour or two in a wheelchair. It gives so much perspective and builds empathy.

I am an able bodied adult. A couple of years ago I hurt my foot and went to the hospital. It was a minor fracture of a minor bone, but they ended up putting a cast on to make sure I would not put weight on it for some time.

It was the middle of the day and I was alone when they discharged me from the ER. This was in Poland. The plus side is that the ER bill was $0. The downside is that I had no crutches and no one to help me. There was a medical supply store across the street and a wheelchair I could use at the entrance to the hospital.

I hopped on over to the entrance and sat down in the wheelchair. Wheeling down the smooth floor was no problem. However, once I hit the pavement, things got tough. Every crack and uneven spot was a real obstacle. I got stuck all the time. Each pebble had the ability to stop me in my tracks. Conquering these minor challenges took more physical strength and tactical planning than I anticipated. Keep in mind, this is while rolling down some average pavement.

Eventually, things got harder. Curbs. A proper curb was an impossible challenge. I imagine that someone who has more experience and body strength might be able to somehow get a wheelchair on the curb. I needed to wheel over to a spot where the curb was lower, at a crossing. This added distance but it was necessary. Not that a lower curb was easy. It still required careful planning, strength, and tactical positioning.

Eventually I made it to the store. Walking on crutches was a blessing. Still needed to return the wheelchair to the hospital. This meant doing the same journey, but slightly uphill, while toting crutches.

This was a while back, but I think of this experience regularly. The world is much different for someone in a wheelchair.

Once while volunteering in a hospital I was collecting up wheelchairs used to take patients to their cars, and I decided to try one out.

What I learned is that staff, patients and visitors in hospitals are really kind and helpful if you're in a wheelchair, and hospitals are (obviously I guess) pretty well adapted to wheelchairs. I also learned it's very difficult to open doors with spring closers - I suspect there's a trick to doing it, but I didn't have time to figure it out because any time someone saw me struggling with a door they'd help me with it.

I also learned you will never feel more self-conscious than when a nice elderly lady helps you with a door, then you reach the place you're delivering the wheelchair, and you have to walk back past the nice lady, revealing you were faking being disabled for your own entertainment.

My undergrad university had a disability awareness week every year, and one of the activities was a challenge to get from one building on campus to another, in a wheelchair, in under ten minutes (the usual class change time). There was a large hill between the buildings that was basically impossible to get up or down safely in a wheelchair, but there was another building you could go through that had exits at the top and bottom and an elevator--if you knew to use it. Other than knowing how to bypass the hill the only real challenge was crossing one street. The rest of the route was on smooth, essentially flat, well-maintained sidewalks.

Like anything wheeled, the type of wheels alone can make terrain navigation much more easy or entirely hellish. I suspect most hospital wheelchairs are optimized for being cheap, including having cheap wheels that do fine on the smooth polished floors of hospitals, and ok-enough for brief journeys (often pushed by someone) just outside to a waiting vehicle, but are not appropriate for going across the street or even at a home with carpet.

My grandpa had a few wheelchairs, me and my cousins would try them out / have fun going up and down the ramp to the house door. They had better wheels (needed for lots of picnics outside on grass, or down the stairs in the basement), the difficulty was mainly a matter of strength, not getting stuck on something seemingly innocuous. (Though you do learn pretty fast I think when you should go over something back-wheels first, either by necessity or just to make things a lot easier.) I remember even as a late teen pushing him up some steeper rough grass though, it could be pretty tough. He wheeled himself around most of the time, he had good arm strength as long as I knew him. I remember getting grabbed by him once too (in trouble for something, what I don't remember) and knowing I wouldn't be able to get away.

These kinds of experiences are so meaningful. In college I was in the so called “gay-straight alliance” and we did an exercise where the straight people had to wear a t-shirt all day that just said “I’M GAY” and we weren’t allowed to deny it if anyone inquired. Definitely an unforgettable moment in my adult life.

I was born in Germany and was informed by my mother about conscientious objection but don't fully understand how caring for disabled people equates to an alternative to violence and war. Shouldn't we inherently care for elderly and disabled regardless of military service and a military industrial complex? How is this a 1-1 comparison. Genuinely trying to be informed here.

Yes, we should.

But I'm just fine with a portion of it being done in a non-military national service. It matters that it is done, even if it is part of national service. There are lots of small jobs that can be done, not just taking care of others directly.

The point of the training was so you couldn't just be a conscientious objector to get out of hard tasks in general. Probably the Wehrgerechtigkeit talked about. Being a conscientious objector won't get you out of service in a war anyway, you'd be required to do various tasks, maybe up to working in a field hospital near the front lines, or maybe just replacing the job of an essential worker that got drafted.

"The point of the training was so you couldn't just be a conscientious objector to get out of hard tasks in general."

I think the point was equal duties for everyone. I read the policy that applied to conscious objectors back then and it seemed they just did a search and replace on a couple of keywords. That is how in my opinion the Grundausbildung "basic training" for conscientious objectors came to be. It contained more things that did not make any sense outside of military.

On thing was the right to receive a certain part of your pay as goods in kind - informally called Dienstbanane - banana for duty. Makes sense if you are on a battle ship for months, not so much in a hospital.

Another, almost comical, thing was the lengthy and detailed regulations about reaching the highest level of unfitness for duty (aka death), which made up a considerable part of the policy.

In practice there was not much justice though, because specific regulations implementation of the laws and regulation were clearly discourage people from going this route and involved lots of harassment.

> Dienstbanane - banana for duty

My god. German! What a language.

I don't understand the word "we" in your comment. Obviously, some specific people do the actual work of caring for disabled people. Most people don't do that work.

The point of "Zivildienst" which translates to "civil service" as opposed to "Wehrdienst" "military service" was to make conscientious objectors contribute to society in-lieu of serving with a weapon. So, once you came of age you had to do one or the other.

I think within this previous paradigm of a citizen army, as opposed to the volunteer army of professional soldiers we have now, this was a good way to make sure you'd still have recruits while not forcing anyone into the military that really didn't want to be there.

>how much physical strength it requires in your arms to drive up an incline

I'll take this as an opportunity to recommend to you all the manga "Real".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Real_(manga)

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